Reflections on the South Korea Summer Abroad Program 2022

By: Jessie L

Hello everyone!

I’m Jessie, heading into my third year at UTSG. This summer, I am incredibly blessed to have participated in the Summer Abroad program in South Korea. It has been an amazing month, and I would undoubtedly say my favourite summer so far in university. It was an unforgettable experience, and I am excited to share my journey with you!

To begin, I would like first to introduce the course. The course for the South Korea program was MGT395: Business Modelling & Global Organizations. In the class, we learned to understand global organizations in business modelling. The course was supplemented with case studies, guest speakers, group projects, and field trips. The course content was engaging, and we had many class discussions. As part of the group project, we created our own business and organized it using the business models we learned in class which was an exciting and rewarding process.

As a business student interested in international business, I learned to see businesses through multiple lenses and gained a deeper understanding of complex global organizations and their impacts. I would say that even non-business students can learn a lot. Our class had about a third of non-business students. However, we had many exciting discussions because of the group's diverse academic backgrounds and cultural perspectives. I enjoyed the class dynamic.

The course also includes weekly field trips to deepen our understanding of the course and explore Seoul to gain a cultural experience. I enjoyed learning Korean culture through multiple lenses during the field trips. They showed me the connection between Korean culture and customers to businesses and how people live. Learning from experience is much more engaging than learning only from textbooks. The field trips also give me more confidence to explore Seoul on my own because I could get a taste test of the Korean culture with the class and find what interests me the most, which motivated me to discover more on my own time. Here are a few short clips and photos that summarize the field trips:

Besides the class experience, I also had the opportunity to explore Seoul on my own and met through the program with my new best friends. Living in a new city was initially challenging and took me some time to adapt. However, the convenience in Seoul made everything easier. I could easily explore many new areas and try out restaurants with traditional Korean cuisine. I wish I could have done better research before coming to Seoul because a month passed by too fast! I feel like there are still many more things and places that I want to explore. Another tip I would give to those interested in participating in the program in the future is to learn some basic Korean. Though you can get by without knowing much Korean like me, I think learning Korean can help you immerse yourself in the culture more and perhaps have a more fulfilling experience. Lastly, I would like to say a sincere thank you to all the people I have met on this journey. I think that I have grown professionally in the sense of relationship building and interacting with people. I enjoyed talking with all the people in this program. Everyone’s personality and personal experience all added a spark to the journey of my experience in Seoul.